I wonder if it just boils down to the speed with which you see the implications of a rule. Or, more generally, some sub-set of rules. If you can travel quickly, mentally, through a tree of implications, and ideally with some heuristic for eliminating large branches, well, that would seem pretty smart, I reckon. In that sense you're simply seeing more than others, and so you want to talk about..odd things, which leads to isolation.
Then there's something I would call "the quiet mind". The smartest people I've known have had very quiet minds, in that once they accept a goal, all of their gifts are brought to bear on eliminating obstacles to that goal. This helped cull the huge portions of that 'syllogism tree' that represent the general opportunity cost of doing anything in particular. (Which brings up the other possibility for drop outs: that they either can't make a choice, or won't because of moral reasons.)
Anyway, I have to wonder what sort of mind could look at the Lorentz contraction and even consider the possibility that "the speed of light is constant in all inertial frames." It's so simple, and yet so profound. Truly one of the most beautiful insights ever made, and it could not have come from a syllogism tree. But for all that Einstein was apparent quite well adjusted.
As for travelling faster through the tree of implications - there can be some emergent behaviour happening when you reach certain speeds.
I.e. you cannot reach certain conclusions - no matter how long it takes - with slower speed because you'll forget parts of the reasoning in the meantime.
Yeah, that's why I added "some sub-set of rules". There are lots of starting points, and a huge number of sub-sets of starting points, so picking the useful subset is itself an art that is very much helped by persistent trial-and-error.
Truth is I wish very smart people would "live for the endurance of life itself" and put aside their personal issues to expand the frontiers of human ignorance. And I wish that we, members of the more general culture, would put our petty judgements aside and give such people all the support they need in order to do this important work. Maybe even to the extent of a limited Truman Show (minus the broadcast) where the government pays nice people to be in the person's life, to give them love and encouragement, no matter what.
This makes sense, if you have esoteric interests outside the range or regular people you will become isolated as it will be difficult to communicate with people.
I'm not a member of 99.9 or anything, but I tend to find it difficult to find similar interest to regular people. When I sense there is a possibility of a deep conversation I push the limits and test the person I'm talking with, usually it becomes clear quickly if they are in or not. If so we have an engaging satisfying conversation, if not we don't have much to talk about (I'm pretty boring).
There aren't many people who know what solipsism is, but when they do we can usually have a interesting conversation.
Imagine if you were more intelligent then everyone else by a large margin, how boring would it be over time? No matter who you engage almost no one can even understand you, never mind push or challenge you. After a while this would be very challenging. As an adult it would almost be like being surrounded by kindergarteners all day long every single day. Not maturity etc but intelligence wise.
There are many types of intelligence, few of which are measured by these tests. If you read the article, it's clear many of these people have quite a lot to learn from others, especially in regard to socialization.
I've known plenty of people who would perform poorly on most intelligence tests, but who otherwise demonstrate significant intelligence in other areas such as music, visual arts, social interaction, humor, logistics, etc. Even athletic ability/body control could be considered an area of human intelligence.
Then there's something I would call "the quiet mind". The smartest people I've known have had very quiet minds, in that once they accept a goal, all of their gifts are brought to bear on eliminating obstacles to that goal. This helped cull the huge portions of that 'syllogism tree' that represent the general opportunity cost of doing anything in particular. (Which brings up the other possibility for drop outs: that they either can't make a choice, or won't because of moral reasons.)
Anyway, I have to wonder what sort of mind could look at the Lorentz contraction and even consider the possibility that "the speed of light is constant in all inertial frames." It's so simple, and yet so profound. Truly one of the most beautiful insights ever made, and it could not have come from a syllogism tree. But for all that Einstein was apparent quite well adjusted.